Web materials, such as plastic wraps, aluminum foil, trash bags, bath tissue and paper towels are well known. These materials are commonly provided as a convolutely wound roll of the web material. The roll of material may be disposed on a horizontally oriented spindle of a roll-holding fixture to facilitate the rotation of the roll and the dispensing of the material for use.
Inevitably, the material of the roll is exhausted and the roll must be replaced with a subsequent roll. Large diameter rolls of the material may provide the benefit of an increased quantity of material per roll and an accompanying increase in the time between roll replacement. The large diameter of these increased capacity rolls can be problematic due to the limited capacity of the existing roll-holding fixtures. The existing fixtures are capable of holding and dispensing rolls across a range of diameters, but that range is limited. As an example, rolls of bath tissue having a diameter in excess of 4.8 inches (12.2 cm) are typically at the upper limit, or outside the range that can be accommodated by common installed bath tissue roll-holding fixtures. These rolls either do not fit in existing holders or do not dispense bath tissue efficiently until sufficient tissue has been removed from the roll to reduce the roll diameter to a diameter that the roll-holding fixture can accommodate.
Effectively marketing an increased capacity, large diameter, wound-roll consumer product is at least partially dependent upon consumer acceptance of the larger roll diameter. This consumer acceptance is in turn at least partially dependent upon the ease with which the large diameter rolls may be held, and the web material dispensed from the rolls. One way to increase the range of roll diameters that can be effectively held and dispensed is to replace the existing roll-holding fixtures. Another way is to adapt the existing roll-holding fixture to accept the large diameter rolls. Consumers are more likely to try a larger diameter roll product that does not require the replacement of an existing roll-holding fixture. Therefore this invention seeks to provide a means of enabling the use and acceptance of a large diameter roll of a consumer web material.